


oxygen

by SilverMoonT



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Ace Atsumu, Aro Osamu, Canon Compliant, Coming Out, Gen, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26799268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoonT/pseuds/SilverMoonT
Summary: Atsumu lets out a sigh.Feeling misunderstood. It's a habit.Overthinking. It's a habit.Needing his brother. It's a habit.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu & Miya Osamu
Comments: 48
Kudos: 410
Collections: Miya Twins Week 2020





	oxygen

**Author's Note:**

> Miya Twins Week
> 
> Day 5 Prompt: Habits
> 
> implied: sunaosa

Atsumu lets out a silent sigh.

There is little time until dinner and in case he finally decides to talk about the topic, he doesn’t want it to be after eating since the next day he has to wake up early to go back to Osaka and he knows that his brother always says _"Don't talk to me after eating, I’ll be busy talkin’ with my stomach"_. So it's now or never. Well, never is an exaggeration. But who knows how long.

He wants to breathe.

"’samu, yer busy?"

"Yeah, imagining yer not talking to me." He hears from the bottom bed.

Atsumu rolls his eyes. He doesn't know why he's expected to hear another kind of sarcasm-free response. He sits up and jumps out of his bed to stand and lean over to see his brother. Osamu is in his bed, lying down and certainly entertained with his phone, but his eyes rest on him when he feels that he is being watched.

"Forget it."

He can always wait a little longer. He's still breathing but it's difficult.

A hand around his wrist prevents Atsumu from straightening up.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"C’mon."

"Nothin’."

"C’mon."

"No."

Osamu rolls his eyes. "I won’t ask ya again."

Atsumu blinks and it takes him a second to change his mind.

"Fine, make space for me."

"No." Osamu refuses yet moves close to the wall to allow Atsumu to lie face down next to him, with his elbows on the mattress and his cheeks squished between the palms of his hands. A sideways glance from Osamu is enough to leave his phone aside because he knows that in case Atsumu had moved only to annoy him, he would be mocking him instead of being serious. "What happens?"

Atsumu shrugs. "Why does something have t’ happen to me?"

"Cuz if nothin’ happened to ya, you wouldn't have come down to my bed."

"Can't I just come down to bother ya?"

Osamu rolls his eyes because the years pass but his brother's stubbornness is impeccable. His brother, the most obvious person he knows, continues to characterize his personality with a hint of obstinacy. It’s a habit. "You always do that." Atsumu looks at him when he hears those words. "Now you look upset."

"Yer annoying."

"Yer annoying. Yer literally in my bed."

"I'm offended."

"Yer existence offends me."

Atsumu stops looking at him to use the white color of Osamu's pillow as a fixed point. "I mean..." He relaxes his shoulders and forces himself to keep talking. He doesn’t know when he will come back to Hyogo again but he does know that he doesn’t want to find himself alone in his room again, staring at the ceiling at three in the morning when he really should be sleeping, resting for a future morning workout, only because now his brother is usually a phone call away instead of inches, often millimeters, although they both deny it. "I mean it."

Osamu frowns because when his brother is offended, he doesn’t stay quiet, he behaves like a five-year-old. He folds his arms, puffs up his cheeks, often looks away, and it’s obvious that he is sulking. But now Atsumu is speaking softly, looks at his pillow, and not at him. Osamu opts to lie on his side so that he can rest his elbow on the mattress and his cheek against the palm of his hand.

"Offended with what?"

Atsumu rolls his eyes. He has a lot to say, but he chooses to match his gaze and ask, "Why didn't you tell me yer seeing someone?"

"What are you talking about?" Osamu is as stubborn as Atsumu.

"Are you taking our old banner seriously?" Atsumu arches an eyebrow. "Today. When Gin asked ya. Yer hickey."

Osamu had expected those words but he is still grateful for the position he has taken, since even though Atsumu slides his gaze towards his neck, thanks to the fact that they are in the bottom bed, he can barely see the colored mark purple on the left side of his neck. Anyway, Osamu moves to cover more of his face with his hand, and therefore, hide his neck behind his arm. Atsumu rolls his eyes because if he has pointed it out, it’s because when the two of them had previously met Gin and Suna, they had all been able to see the hickey on his neck, otherwise Gin wouldn’t have asked about it.

"Ah. That. It ain’t nothing."

"Nothing?" Atsumu gives him a serious look. "It is something."

"It's just a hickey." Osamu shrugs.

"Who did it to ya?"

"What, now you want to control me?" It's Osamu's turn to look at him seriously.

Atsumu rolls his eyes because to him, his words don't make sense.

"I just want to make sure you don't do anythin’ wrong in our room."

"The only wrong thing I do is eat in yer bed."

"What?"

"I'm serious."

"Unbelievable." Actually, Atsumu isn't surprised at all. Now that he lives in Osaka and comes back to Hyogo every so often when the volleyball season ends or when he can and has the opportunity, like that time, Osamu has proclaimed the room for himself. "You changed the topic."

"If the topic ain’t ‘bout food then I’m not interested."

Atsumu snorts. Yes, it’s true that he lives in Osaka but he is still more used to sharing a room with his brother instead of having his own room. He is used to sharing. The same room, sometimes the same clothes. For a few years the same side of the court and the same uniform. Conversations, secrets, too. It’s a habit.

He forms a line with his lips because again he wants to compete, again he wants to take advantage of that unique relationship between the two that only exists because they are twins and because they have the same face yet not the same kind of feelings. Atsumu takes a look at him but runs it back because Osamu keeps looking at him. He is nervous, but he keeps thinking that there’s nothing worse than wanting something and not doing it. Not talking to Osamu, hurts.

"Don’tcha feel that sometimes..." That you can't sleep because there are thoughts that despite not being able to understand, apparently don't seem to leave you alone until you can tell someone else? That there’s something, a nuisance inside of you, that asks and takes, that doesn’t stay quiet and that with each day that passes and is still locked up, it becomes more difficult to carry? "That you don’t understand people no matter how hard you try?"

Osamu chuckles and Atsumu looks at him.

"People don't understand you, 'tsumu."

"What?"

For Osamu, the answer is obvious.

"Yer desire to improve, volleyball, neither do I."

That too, is obvious. Atsumu still plays volleyball, Osamu doesn’t.

Now one lives in Osaka as part of a professional volleyball team while the other has stayed in Hyogo to attend culinary classes.

"Sometimes it's difficult when no one understands ya."

"Ain’t Bokuto yer teammate? He is as intense as you."

"Yeah but..." This time it's not about his hunger to play set after set, to lift the ball over and over again, to be able to get his ten fingers under the ball no matter how much it costs. "I mean it... don’tcha feel that sometimes..." This time it's about feeling insatiable because his feelings are eating him up. "That you can’t understand people no matter how hard you try?" He repeats.

Osamu bites his lower lip. "Yeah."

"Really?" Atsumu leaves his knuckles under his chin.

"But like I told ya," Osamu says quickly, "It's not that you can’t understand people, people can’t understand ya."

"Yeah..." Atsumu chooses not to contradict him since in a way he has gotten used to that kind of comments, even when those come from his brother's mouth. Go on, and on. Learn, strive, win. He thinks that then his brother doesn't even understand himself because he thinks Osamu runs the same way as him, only that now they are going in different directions. "And why didja say yes?"

"And why didja ask in the first place?"

Atsumu lowers his gaze.

  1. He tells the truth and finally gets rid of the annoyance.
  2. He tells the truth and another annoyance replaces the previous one because his brother will not want to talk to him.



Whatever he thinks about the situation, he might still be upset anyway, so, "Before..." He starts, "When Gin asked ya about that..."

"What?"

"He made me..." He looks up but in the same second he drops his gaze again because his brother is already looking at him along with a confused expression, and although he knows that Osamu is not doing it on purpose, he doesn’t like to feel that way. Misunderstood. "It made me feel uncomfortable."

"Why?"

"Cuz..."

His brother giving a laugh that is not really a real laugh gets Atsumu to watch him. "Does it really bother ya that he asked me about my hickey?" Osamu asks, with his eyes narrowed and a slight irritation appearing as the companion of his words. "Don't worry, 'tsumu, yer already non-existent reputation won't be affected by what I do or don't do."

Atsumu frowns and brings his hand to his brother’s shoulder to give him a light push. "It ain’t about that."

Osamu doesn't complain, nor does he push him back when the two are back in their previous positions. "What?"

"You can do whatever you want." Atsumu assures him.

That’s not really true. He can't go very far, he can't disappear. He can’t stop being his brother, he can’t stop being his twin and be there for him. It’s forbidden. In some strange way, those thoughts reduce the tension in his muscles.

"So?" Osamu asks him. "Why didja feel uncomfortable?"

Atsumu clears his throat. "Cuz of the question he asked me."

Osamu looks around them, seeming to search for the answer until it seems to fall because again his eyes rest on him. "Now that I think about it, you didn't answer." After asking Osamu if he was seeing anyone thanks to the hickey on his neck, Gin had asked Atsumu the same thing, only to get no answer while Osamu had rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Wait, you've never had sex with anyone?"

"I would have told ya."

"So you felt uncomfortable cuz I did or cuz I didn't tell ya?"

"Well, I would have liked ya to tell me but no... it's just..."

"What?" Osamu arches an eyebrow. "You want some advice on that or something?" He thinks that at twenty, both of them are old enough to talk about it. After all, for them, or at least for him, he feels like there will never be a more tense conversation than the one they'd had when he'd told his brother that he didn't want to keep playing volleyball after high school. "I feel like yer pride is too big for that." He adds along with a laugh.

"No, I don't..." Atsumu rolls his eyes. "I don't think I would ever ask ya for advice on that."

Osamu laughs again. "Hah, I knew it."

"Not cuz of my pride but because—"

Atsumu stops himself from talking because it’s about his brother, a person he trusts, probably the person he trusts the most because otherwise he wouldn’t find himself in the situation that he has created. Osamu stops laughing and narrows his eyes. It’s true that Atsumu is expressive, but if there is something that he knows, it’s to detect when his silence is true as well as his fan of smiles. It’s a habit, to keep looking where others don’t, squinting eyes and perceiving any detail.

"What's going on?"

"I don't..." He goes back to Hyogo tomorrow morning anyway. Training will keep him distracted. Using volleyball as an escape when he wants to stop thinking is a habit that he has developed unconsciously. "I don't want to have sex." He says, confesses, and immediately closes his eyes and wrinkles his nose. He expects to hear a confused expression and doesn't want to see the disorientation on his brother's face, but when he opens one eye, and then the other to find Osamu staring at him as if once again he had mentioned that he likes to play volleyball, Atsumu tilts head and he happens to be the confused of the two.

"’kay." Osamu says.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Doesn't that seem strange to ya?"

This is how he feels, completely weird because it has already become impossible to count all the times that he has pretended to be hungry to get away from the conversations that his teammates have started having on topics that he would rather avoid, because when they ask him with how many people he has slept, or they mention that one day he should let them know in case of taking a girl to the Black Jackals bedrooms, he just shrugs and practices one of his best smiles, knowing that he doesn’t really want to answer those questions because one, he hasn’t slept with anyone, and second, he doesn’t think about taking any girl to the bedrooms. He doesn't blame them. It’s common, a habit. And that's why he feels weird.

"Is this why you asked me if I sometimes feel that people can’t understand me?" Osamu asks him, since he is finally beginning to understand why his brother had chosen to leave the comfort of his bed to find himself by his side.

"Well yeah, cuz... sex is something that everyone wants."

"Not everyone, apparently."

"D’you think I'm weird?" Atsumu insists.

"I think yer weird cuz you're my brother, not cuz you don't wanna have sex," Osamu assures him, "Is that why it bothered ya that Gin asked ya that question?"

Atsumu nods. "Yeah, I know he didn't do it with bad intentions."

"Wait," Atsumu swallows because Osamu finally frowns. "You flirt with people all the time."

A sigh leaves Atsumu's lips.

"That doesn't mean I want to sleep with them."

"What about kissing someone?"

Atsumu tilts his head because his brother's confusion doesn’t appear through accusatory words, but through curious questions that indicate that he wants to know instead of calling him weird.

"It doesn't bother me."

"But let's say that someone wants to touch ya, like, y’know, what about that?"

Atsumu wrinkles his nose. "I don't like it."

"’kay."

"You really don't think I'm weird?"

"No." Osamu answers without hesitation.

Any kind of tension leaves Atsumu's body but it seems to transfer to Osamu's body the moment he decides to add, "You want to know why?"

"Cuz yer my brother," Atsumu begins to reply, this time more relaxed because Osamu hasn't expressed that he doesn't understand him, that he's weird and that he doesn't want to talk to him anymore. "Cuz you love me even if you never tell me and yer—" He stops talking when he realizes that Osamu is looking at him seriously, judging him not because he just told him that physical intimacy is not his thing. But because he's his brother. "Sorry, go on."

"Cuz then you would be fine in a relationship but you don't like sex, right?" Atsumu nods, since while walking hand in hand with someone is something that doesn't bother him, thinking of those hands sliding towards other parts of his body is not an image he really wants to think about. "Well, for me it's the other way around."

Atsumu tilts his head. "What?"

Osamu clears his throat. "Yeah, that," He shrugs. "I want sex but not a relationship."

"But the hickey."

"Physical. It doesn’t mean that I want a relationship."

"But—" Atsumu is about to keep talking until he realizes that if he hadn't wanted Osamu to look at him strangely, then Osamu surely doesn't want the situation to be reversed either, so, "What about having someone by yer side?"

"Friends. Family. You think I'm weird?"

"I think yer weird cuz yer my brother." Atsumu smiles with pride when Osamu rolls his eyes because he copied his previous words. "No." Atsumu adds without hesitation.

"Aren'tcha angry that I'll never introduce ya to someone as my partner?"

"No." Again there is no doubt in his answer. He believes that in a way that is better, he won't have to worry about pretending that he might like someone he doesn't really like or seeing his brother's heart being broken. "I just... it surprises me... so what is it like? You don’t feel?"

"Yes, I feel. I despise ya." Atsumu rolls his eyes at this. "Yes, I feel but I just don't want to be in a relationship." Osamu explains with the same patience with which he had previously listened to him. "That's why I told ya that people don't understand me."

"Does the person who made you that hickey know this?"

"No, Rin—" The brown in Atsumu's eyes widens because that nickname turns out to be completely familiar and Osamu frowns when his brother's jaw drops. "Ugh."

"WHAT."

"Don’t scream."

"SUNARIN DID T— " Osamu covers his mouth with his hand but Atsumu licks it and Osamu wipes his hand on his brother’s shirt before giving him a disgusted look. "Sunarin did that to ya?" He asks in a low voice.

"Well, there are a lot of Rins."

"’samu!" Atsumu yells softly.

"Yes, yes, fine." Osamu decides to accept. "The Suna Rintarou that you know did it."

Atsumu chuckles because that detail was not expected.

"Wait," He says, realizing another detail. "You like guys?"

"Yeah." Osamu confesses along with a laugh. "I like guys."

Atsumu laughs too. "Me... me too."

"Nah, you say that just to make fun of me cuz you always want to be like me."

"'samu, with people like Aran-kun and Kita-san on the team..."

They both laugh when those words are mentioned. Osamu laughs, hiding his mouth behind his hand while Atsumu shakes his head to then lower it, and again finds a smiling expression on his brother's face when they look at each other.

"Don't tell me you had a crush."

"Had? I still have it, when I see them."

"I can't even make fun of yerself cuz it's understandable." Osamu keeps laughing. "I like guys, yeah, but also girls, I don't know, anyone." He adds with a shrug, finally allowing a smile to remain on his face. "And then, d’you like someone on yer team?"

"Well..." Atsumu laughs and Osamu laughs too because he knows what that means. "They all have their things..." They both laugh at the same time, because Osamu doesn’t need Atsumu to add more words to understand that surely his brother has already taken note of the physical and emotional advantages of each of his teammates. "You can’t laugh at me, you literally just admitted to me that yer sleeping with Sunarin. How long ago? How long has this been going on?"

Osamu chuckles before finally being able to speak.

"A few months maybe."

"And I never noticed."

Osamu allows his gesture to become bittersweet. "Yer busy... I'm busy... we know how to hide."

"And does he know?"

"No, no, I haven't told him yet."

"But... don'tcha, like, ain't that a bit selfish?" Atsumu asks him, because just as he can often keep words stuck on his palate, most of the time he is the person who asks and answers without stopping to think about the structure of his sentences. "Cuz maybe Sunarin does want something more."

"But it's the way I feel so I decide," Osamu responds, used to his brother's innocent clumsiness. "I dunno. He just, look, I don't know. We just have a good time, ‘kay? You don't know Rin like I do."

"Rin." Atsumu rolls his shoulders and raises eyebrows repeatedly.

"Shut up," Osamu gently pushes his face away with his hand and Atsumu laughs. "He would tell me."

"You're... yer so cool. Kissing him without feeling. Yer with Sunarin. Amazing."

"Don't say I'm with Rin." Osamu looks at him seriously. "And don’t say I don’t feel. I just don't want a relationship."

"Sorry," Atsumu says. "You hang out with him?"

"Yeah, you know, when he comes here from Nagano."

"Then you don't like Sunarin."

"He attracts me, I dunno. He’s pretty, ok."

"I think you have to tell him. It's Sunarin, he will understand."

"I know, but it's hard." Osamu shrugs to pretend that mentioning it to his brother hadn't been completely difficult when he certainly only told him because Atsumu had started speaking first.

Osamu understands when people don't believe them once they express that Atsumu is the older brother even for a few minutes, but Osamu doesn't care because he only cares that his brother remains his older brother, ironically, without being aware of the same.

"I know."

"Were you nervous to tell me?"

"Yeah."

"If I never told ya anything, it's cuz I was scared, not cuz I don't trust ya," Osamu assures him, since Gin pointing out his hickey with Suna and Atsumu in the same space hadn't felt good at all. He doesn’t like to hide from his brother, just as he doesn’t like his brother to hide from him.

Hiding from each other the different parts that compose them is difficult when sometimes they are not even able to tell themselves apart, but when feelings grow and having the same facial features is no longer enough to argue that it’s impossible to differentiate then, hiding can become a habit.

"I know, the same thing happens with ya."

"Well, at least I won't have to worry about future children."

Atsumu bites his lower lip. "I'm sorry, did you want nephews?" He asks, certainly being sincere, since that question has been another of the issues that has kept him from sleeping at night. "Bah, I dunno, I still can, I mean, I can, I could adopt, I don't know. But I think I don't want to."

"Hey, no." Osamu shakes his head. "Nah, don't say that. Yer enough for me and I want you to be happy."

"Thank you," Atsumu smiles. "Y’know, despite you telling me this, I don't feel understood."

"Yeah I know, it's like I feel lonely sometimes... I think that—"

"Shall we look it up with our phones?"

Osamu blinks because he's used to his brother asking him sudden questions that don't make sense, but he still reacts the same way anyway. "What?"

"D’you think it has a name?"

"'tsumu, the internet is bad."

"Then if it says something awful, I'll look up yers and you look up mine."

Atsumu turns to extend his arm towards the floor since he had left his phone charging, unplugs it and opts to leave his elbows on the mattress to then hold his phone towards him. Osamu rolls his eyes.

"You and yer ideas..." Osamu says, yet he copies his position and takes his phone to give it to him. They exchange their phones and now their shoulders are touching.

If Atsumu smiles because he prefers that reality instead of imagining Osamu saying not to touch him while Osamu raises one of the corners of his mouth because having his brother by his side is better than having him far away, they don’t mention it out loud. Missing each other without the need of words is a habit. Atsumu surrounds his arm with his, still looking at the screen and without asking him, and Osamu also doesn't look at him because although perhaps it's true that most of the time he thinks his brother is unbearable, many other times it's his strong and constant presence the one that prevents him from having bad days, be it by phone or side by side.

"What do I type?" Osamu adds.

"Mhm... how is it called when you don't want to have sex."

"’kay..." Osamu types the words. "You look up how is it called when you don't want to be in a relationship."

Atsumu's phone keys are heard while Osamu's are not. The different color of their pupils is illuminated with the same type of electronic glow as their eyes scan words.

"Didja find something?" Atsumu asks him.

"Yeah, and you?"

"I think yer aromantic."

"And yer ace."

Atsumu raises his head to frown and look at him, confused.

"But I'm a setter."

Osamu rolls his eyes and corresponds to his gaze. "Ace for asexual, jerk."

"Well, say asexual next time, moron."

They swap phones once they come up with terms to define the way they feel, and again hold their own phones in their hands as they keep digging into a whole new possible world of information.

"It says there can be like, different options." Atsumu says.

"And which one are ya?"

"Well, I don't want to have sex at all. It says it's called sex-negative." A giggle leaves his mouth. "That sounds funny. What about ya?"

Osamu's response is not immediate. He moves his thumb over the screen, groping his gaze between two squares of different colors, until he bites his lower lip and decides to say, "Here it says demiromantic."

"What is that?" Atsumu also looks at the screen.

"You only feel romantic feelings when strongly attached to someone. Like, you don’t get crushes on strangers. You only want to have a relationship after having an emotional connection with a person."

"Ah..." Atsumu glances at him as he recognizes the thoughts behind that choice since just as they have the same facial features, they sometimes have the same gestures, and biting the lower lip, for both, implies a bit of nerves and indecision. "Here it says that I can also be demisexual." He adds, "But I don't want that, well, at least not for now. I dunno, I've never experienced it." He shrugs. He knows that he is the one that had proposed to search with their phones, but the important thing for him had been to be honest with his brother, not to find a name for the way he feels. "Yer still thinking about it for Rin?" He asks him, and he knows that living in Osaka doesn't stop him from knowing his brother because Osamu tilts his head and that means an affirmative answer. "Anyway, you see, I told ya the internet ain’t bad."

"Wow." Osamu locks his phone to look at him. "You had a good idea, about time."

"Two, actually."

"And what was the other one?"

Atsumu smiles. "Trusting you."

His smile disappears because his brother's expression doesn’t change and he begins to hold the same face since he knows that the next words intoned by his brother will be accompanied by sarcasm.

"Now you want us to hug?"

"No."

"D’you think we should tell mom?" Osamu asks him.

"Yeah, I don't want her to think the condoms are mine."

Osamu shows him that having stopped playing volleyball doesn’t change the fact that he is still strong because the punch he gives to his shoulder with his thanks to that set of words, makes Atsumu make a face and bring his hand towards that part of his body to caress it.

"Go to hell." Osamu says.

"I already went down to it." Osamu moves. "DON'T DO IT." Atsumu also moves before Osamu can hit his shoulder a second time and he has to explain to the coach why he should rest.

"Boys, dinner!" They both listen to their mother.

Osamu holds a wide smile while Atsumu rolls his eyes.

"You know, I thought you'd cook for me today for coming over."

"It's not like I asked ya to come."

Atsumu tries to smack him on the head but Osamu shakes his now black locks. "I know you miss me, 'samu, you don't hafta tell me."

"Get out of my bed."

Atsumu stands up and stretches his arms above his head once he gets up, promptly followed by his brother. He holds a lopsided smile and Osamu looks at him with both eyebrows slightly raised.

"Glad to know I'm not broken."

"Yer not." Osamu assures him, and himself.

"We always hafta complement each other, don'tcha think? I also read that some people can be both aro and ace."

"We complement each other cuz you balance my intelligence with yer stupidity."

"Hey!"

"Or my pretty face with yer ugliness."

"'samu, we literally have the same face."

"Unfortunately."

Atsumu takes a look at him and it’s Osamu's turn to smile, so Atsumu promptly re-decorates his face with the same gesture.

"Y’know, you won’t have to introduce me to someone cuz I already know Sunarin," Atsumu tells him, since just as Osamu knows how to read behind his expressions, he can read his as well.

"And when will ya introduce me to someone?"

"Why 'samu? You won’t be able to make them think that yer more handsome than me."

"We have the same face."

"That's what I just said."

Osamu sticks his tongue out because he can and Atsumu does the same.

They both keep looking at each other and promptly hold the same kind of smile. Sharing the same facial features implies that they can read each other in a certain way, but trusting each other is a habit that they have created between the two of them, because they are brothers, because they are twins, and because they have chosen to trust each other. Atsumu comes back to Hyogo every so often, and if they don't mention they miss each other, it's not because they share the same pride, but because it's already established that they do.

They place their shoulders together as they have done many times after scoring a point together or winning a game. It’s true that they no longer share the same side of the court because only one continues to play volleyball, but the trust is permanent.

If when they are tired, if when Atsumu misses the silent presence of his brother or Osamu misses the sarcastic voice of his brother, they let out a breath of air because sighing means they just have to wait a little longer to see each other. If being patient is all they need in order to have enough air again, then it’s okay if one lives in Osaka and the other in Hyogo as long as the communication is not cut off and therefore their provision of air.

Atsumu heads down the hall and Osamu looks at him.

"Hey, since you wanted that hug—"

"I didn't want a hug," Atsumu lies.

"And since yer exercising, Mr. Thighs—"

"Oh shut yer tr—" Atsumu turns around but opens his eyes when he spots Osamu approaching him at full speed.

"Carry me!"

"What! No! No joke! I can't—"

He turns around just in time to allow Osamu to hang onto his back.

"Younger brother attacks older brother!"

"’samu! We're gonna fal—"

It's a matter of seconds before they fall onto the floor, but instead of complaining they start laughing at and with each other, a suddenly assembled puzzle of limbs. They hear their mother scolding them but they keep laughing at each other as well as themselves. Trusting each other has become as conscious and unconscious as breathing, needing oxygen and allowing air to fill their lungs.

Falling together is also a habit.

They know they have the other to extend a hand and help each other anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
